Tag: insecurity

  • The Biggest Pitfall for Aspiring Authors

    The Biggest Pitfall for Aspiring Authors

    It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means.  It’s #IWSG Day! The question this month is…

     

    The Insecure Writer's Support Group

    What pitfalls have you encountered on your journey to publication that you can share with others?

    Well, uh… hmm. I don’t actually know of many pitfalls from direct personal experience. To date, I only have two minimal publishing credits to my name. This post, therefore, will focus on the one that I feel is the biggest and most fatal pitfall facing all of us creative folks: the pitfall of giving up.

    But first, allow me to drop a plug for the Insecure Writers Support Group.  The IWSG, founded by the esteemed Alex J. Cavanaugh, is an online space where writers (insecure and otherwise) can come together to share stories, successes, struggles, and all the rest of it. The website is chock-o-block full of great stuff.  There’s a Twitter Pitch (just happened in July), contests, books, swag, conferences, and more.  Be sure to jump over there and check them out!

    The awesome co-hosts for the August 1 posting of the IWSG are Erika Beebe, Sandra Hoover, Susan Gourley, and Lee Lowery!

    Okay, back to this month’s topic: pitfalls to void.

     

    A Lesson from Stephen King! 

    On WritingBack in my early 20’s, right around the time I got married, I bought a copy of Stephen King’s semi-autobiographical craft book On Writing. In it, King shared his youthful adventures in writing an submitting short stories with blind optimism to the magazines he loved to read: Analog, Asimov’s, Amazing Stories, etc. He started submitting in his early teens. As you can imagine, he got a lot of rejection letters.

    King did something great, though, in turning the submission/rejection thing into a game. Upon receiving his first rejection letter–a form letter–, he drove a nail into the wall of his bedroom and impaled the letter upon it. How quickly could King accumulate enough rejection letters to overwhelm that nail? Understand, please, that King didn’t compromise the quality of the stories he wrote and submitted in an attempt to grow the stack with artificial speed. That would have been cheating. His primary goal was always to write the best story he could and get it published. He merely created a synergistic secondary goal that he could work towards when he wasn’t making progress toward his primary goal.

    The important lesson I took from reading his book was that it’s possible to find ways of turning failures into successes. There are ways to immunize ourselves against the discouraging sting that comes with rejection. A sting that all too often ends up crippling creative individuals and ending their careers before they begin.

     

    Playing the Game

    Chimpanzee at a Typewriter

    Upon finishing his book, I decided it might be fun to try my hand at King’s game. I’d been writing stories all my life and harbored secret fantasies of becoming a successful author. But that required sticking my vulnerable neck out and submitting the stuff I wrote. The “Rejection Game,” as I called it, gave me permission to expose myself to the volley of rejections I knew would ensue.

    Over the course of the next year, I researched and submitted to close to fifty magazines. This was in the very early days of the internet, so most venues still required print submissions sent via snail mail with self-address-stamped return envelopes for letters of acceptance/rejection. Of those fifty submissions, I received 48 rejection letters. Two magazines took a story from me. Tiny publications that paid out in single contributor copies, but still, two out of fifty. I was pleased.

    Confession: I miss getting rejection letters in the mail. Even a form letter felt a tiny bit nifty when presented in a physical envelope that arrives in your mailbox. A digital email just doesn’t carry the same special weight.

     

    Watch Out for That Pitfall. It’s a Doozy.

    If only I’d kept at it! Remember, this was happening the year after I got married. And changed my job. And got pregnant with my first child. Guess who stopped writing and submitting stories? Yeah, me.

    Thirteen years would pass before I sent out another story on submission. What can I say? Life got busy. I got distracted. Not an excuse, just my reality. I didn’t give up intentionally. Many folks probably wade into the pitfall of giving up slowly, day by day. So many things can fill up our lives that we can feel as though we’re drowning in quicksand. I was certainly feeling that way last October when I wrote my post, “Life, Will You Just Chill Out Already?”

    Lots of people never figure out how to strike a balance between their writing goals and life obligations, or maybe they fail to immunize themselves against the sting of having their creative work turned down over and over again. That didn’t happen to me, but I’ve witnessed it happen to other writers. Without some way to turn each “no” into a positive, the weight of all those “thanks, but no thanks” can accumulate until it’s crushing your soul. And Odin knows, it’s the easiest thing in the world to set that weight aside and do something else.

    Author Jason Reynolds
    Mr. Reynolds, an incredible writer and mentor in our program

    On my way out the door of my MFA program at Lesley University, I was reminded of the lesson I’d gleaned a decade and a half ago from Mr. King’s book. If you want to succeed, you must keep writing, keep submitting, keep querying. Young Adult author Jason Reynolds told me and a small classroom of other impending graduates that the difference between those that make it in the publishing industry and those that don’t is persistence. The authors who find success are the ones who don’t give up. They kept playing their very own “Rejection Game” until something stuck. Talent helps, but even the most talented writer in the world can fall into the pitfall of giving up.

     

    Lessons from Vigo Mortensen

    Have you ever seen the movie G.I. Jane with Demi Moore and Viggo Mortensen? I love that movie. Whatever. Don’t judge me. I’m not judging all the fans who love 300. It’s all love here!

    Anyway, there’s a scene in that film where the cadets are doing push-up’s and leg lifts and other generally awful forms of exhausting exercises in the ocean. They’re right in the middle of the breaker zone, icy waves crashing down over them again and again. It’s been hours. They’re soaked, sand-blasted, shaking with fatigue and the early stages of hypothermia. And the Master Chief (Viggo) is walking up and down the line shouting all kinds of philosophical musings at them. This is the moment when he delivers a few lines that resonated to my core.

    “Pain is your friend, your ally. It will tell you when you are seriously injured. It will keep you awake, and angry, and remind you to finish the job and get the hell home. But you know the best thing about pain? It lets you know you’re not dead yet.”

     

    Viggo’s basically telling his cadets to embrace their pain and frustration and exhaustion because it means they haven’t given up. Stephen King and Jason Reynolds were preaching less intense variants of the same philosophy.

    As creative folks, rejection hurts. Of course it does, but that sting you feel means you’re still playing the game, you haven’t quit, you’re not dead yet. So there you have it. Giving up is the first and biggest pitfall you can fall into on your way to getting published.

    Don’t give up.

    Find a way to turn the rejections into positives. Make the pain be your friend. Keep writing, or painting, or sculpting, or composing, or whatever it is that you make. In this world that is becoming more and more obsessed with consumption, we need folks who engage in glorious acts of creation.

    What’s your strategy for staying resilient and skirting the pitfall of quitting? Help the rest of us out by sharing in the comments! 

     

    Thanks for stopping by, and as always, happy writing to you.

  • Boskone 2018 – A Phenomenal SFF Writers Convention

    Boskone 2018 – A Phenomenal SFF Writers Convention

    It’s the day after the 55th Annual Boskone Convention wrapped up, and I just realized I haven’t written a post for some time.  To commit my thoughts and observations in the “permanent” annals of the internet, I thought I’d talk about my experience at my very first writing convention.   I met and heard from some amazingly talented authors, editors, and agents in the fantasy and science fiction genre.

     

    What Is Boskone?

    No one I knew had ever heard of Boskone and, truth be told, neither had I until my Fantasy and Science Fiction professor at Lesley University told me about ReaderCon, which happens every summer in Quincy, Massachusetts.  In researching that, I stumbled upon Boskone.  Right there on the homepage, I saw enough to get me to register: Mary Robinette Kowal and Tamora Pierce.

    Mary–the charismatic co-host of my favorite podcast, Writing Excuses, and Tamora–one of the best YA fantasy writers ever!  Done.  I’m there. 

    Then, I kept finding bonuses as I perused the long list of program participants.  I kept getting more and more excited, but I really had no idea what to expect.  I’ve never been to a writing convention before.  Heck, I’ve never been to any kind of convention before.  

    In early January, they posted the schedule for the weekend, and I started picking out which panels I most wanted to go to.  Odin knows, I had trouble choosing.  More often than not, several fascinating panels were happening at the same time.  I kept having to remind myself that this wasn’t the one and only convention I’d ever get to attend in my life.  No, this was just the first (of many, I hope).

     

    Where was Boskone?

    You can click the link for their website, but I’ll tell you that, at least for this year, it took place at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel, right next door to the Boston Convention Center.  Boskone was in the hotel, though, not over in the convention center.  The New England Boat Show was happening over there.

    The Westin was beautiful… what I saw of it.  I didn’t stay there.  Living just 30 miles north, I couldn’t justify spending $200+/night for a room when I could walk and train it to and from for $15.00 a day.  But, based on some of the hotel patrons I observed while sitting in the lobby wishing I was better at striking up conversations with people, I’m willing to guess their rooms were equally beautiful.

    Boskone events occupied all the conference and banquet rooms in the hotel’s east (north?) wing on all three floors, which were reasonably sized and clean.  I was impressed with the quality of the mic systems the hotel provided for the event.  The shrink wrapped carpets in the Galleria (in and around where snacks were put out each evening) amused me.

     

    The Social Scene

    To all you people who go to conferences more often than I do, or who are perhaps published authors who attend conventions as participants: how do you talk to each other?!  I’m not referring to asking questions during panel discussions.  That’s easy because that’s a venue with limits and expectations and rules for conduct, etc.  I’m talking about striking up casual social conversations that might allow me to actually meet other established or aspiring authors.

    I spent most of my time between panel discussions watching groups of people mingle and chat and laugh with each other.  I saw so many authors in the halls with whom I desperately wanted to strike up a conversation, but all I could do was smile and manage to whimper out a feeble “hello.”  How do you all do it?!  I’m in awe and completely jealous of folks with, you know, social skills.

    Is there some secret handshake I don’t know about?  Do the folks who attend conventions all know each other from elsewhere?  Same for the authors; do they all know each other already?

    Friday evening, there was an art show and refreshments opening event that I went to.  My beloved went with me for moral support and to see the art.  At one point, we were standing up on an elevated level that looked down on the rest of the floor, packed with people.  And everywhere I looked, people were sitting together at tables or standing in clusters with authors mixed in.  All happy, all chatting.  I felt very much like an outsider, but I just couldn’t must the courage to march up to a bunch of people I didn’t know and start talking.  

    I randomly struck up a conversation with K. Stoddard Hayes while looking at beautiful art, but she was alone and we were admiring the same painting simultaneously.  She was so nice, by the way!  My claim to fame is now that I lent K. Stoddard Hayes a pen so she could bid on a painting at Boskone.  Great as that was, I can’t hope for that kind of happy random encounter over and over again!

     

    Event Highlights for Me

    Mary Robinette KowalOkay, I’ll start with the two people who initially drew me to the convention: Mary Robinette Kowal and Tamora Pierce.  I did get Mary Robinette Kowal to sign my copy of Ghost Talkers (fantastic book), and struggled to form coherent words and sentences while talking to her at the autograph table.  Hope I didn’t come off as too much of a bumbling weirdo.

    I also got to listen to Mary’s Guest of Honor interview (she was interviewed by an Astronaut, by the way.  I’m not kidding!).  She is articulate and well-spoken (shocker since she’s an audiobook narrator as well as author and professional puppeteer) and charismatic and genuine.  She even broke out one of her puppets during the interview!  Her parting thoughts at the end will stay with me for a long time.  “Don’t be ashamed of your voice.”

    Tamora PierceI was not able to get my copy of Tempest and Slaughter signed by Tamora Pierce, sadly.  The line was ridiculously long and I naïvely thought that if I just slipped out of the “Ensemble Casts and Continuing Characters” discussion panel at 4:40, I’d have 20 minutes to get down to her autographing session and get my book signed.  Pshaw right! 

    Ah, well, as I kept reminding myself and will continue to remind myself, this was just the first writing convention I’ve been to, not the only one I’ll ever go to.  At least I got to hear her talk about her thoughts regarding sex in YA fiction.  Her thoughts (and I’m paraphrasing): what’s the big deal?  It happens.  She was smart and funny!

    The art, people.  Thor Almighty the art!  Absolutely fantastic.  Jaw-droppingly good stuff.  I didn’t take pictures, because I feel a bit dodgy about posting photos of someone else’s art online without getting explicit permission, and most of the artists weren’t around during the multiple times I ambled through the galleries.  You’ll just have to take my word for it.  The art was amazing.

     

    The panels were incredible, too, and I wish I could have gone to them all, but alas, I haven’t yet managed to steal the Time Turner.  Anyway, here are some of the great takeaways that I jotted into my notebook during various panels:

    “The teen libedo longs to escape and run free. That’s just a biological reality.” – Darleen Marshall during the It’s Not Always About Sex panel.

    During the Sex and Romance in YA Fiction panel, Barry Goldblatt said there’s a strange hierarchy of what kind of sex on the page is okay and what isn’t.  Rape?  Fine.  Masturbation? Deal breaker.  I find that utterly bizarre!  What does that say about our culture in America that we’re okay letting teens read about sex that’s violent and painful and damaging but not a sexual act that is safe and pleasurable and private?

    “If you want your secondary characters to be memorable, you have to give readers something to remember!” – Kenneth Schneyer during the Ensemble Casts and Continuing Characters panel.

    “All the members of an ensemble think they’re the protagonist and they all get time on the stage to show their story.” – E.C. Ambrose during the Ensemble Casts and Continuing Characters panel.

    During the Governmental Structures in SFF panel, Nik Korpon pointed out that SFF authors tend to gravitate toward totalitarian/dictatorial/monarchist systems of government because they’re easy to write, and I understood what he meant, but then Susan Jane Bigelow pointed out that in reality, those structures are inherently fragile and difficult to maintain and so the systems created by those in power to hold onto their power are actually incredibly complex.  All the panelists agreed and agreed that authors rarely address much beyond the big, bad overlord villain and his closest henchmen.

    “Agents want to see what’s there ‘in the rough’ for a manuscript.  They want to see what you produced, not what you and a professional editor produced.” – Richard Shealy during the What Good is an Agent panel.

    “My agent works for an agency that gets 40,000 queries each year.  So, don’t get discouraged if you don’t land an agent in the first 10, 20, 100 queries.”  – Hillary Monahan during the What Good is an Agent panel.

    During the Forgotten Topics in YA panel, the panelists all listed off topics that they didn’t see being addressed in YA fiction but needed to be: non-romantic formative relationships, interracial couples, and voices of the impoverishes/severely disenfranchised.

    “The Ultimate theme of all YA stories is Person versus Self (coming of age stories).” – Carlos Hernandez during the Forgotten Topics in YA panel.

    “Each book needs to be a story in its own right, with its own compelling arc, but each book also needs to fit into the multi-book arc of the series.” – Marshall Ryan Maresca during the Ending a Series panel.

    Those were just a few of the many gems that caught my attention.

     

    I’m not sad it’s over. I’m happy it happened.

    Sure, but I’m still a little sad it’s over because while I heard from and (in very rare circumstances) spoke to and connected via twitter with a bunch of interesting and talented people at Boskone this past weekend, there were many more with whom I didn’t.  

    I’ve already go my sights set on ReaderCon in July of this summer.

    Here are all the folks who struck me as particularly cool people, which is not to say that all the other participating authors/agents/editors/etc aren’t also cool people; I just didn’t get a chance to experience them this time around. 

     

    Final Thoughts

    I am so happy that I decided to push myself outside my comfort zone and attend a writing convention.  I’m even more happy that my first experience with a writing convention was Boskone.

    If you get a chance, you should get to Boskone56 next year.  You won’t be disappointed.  It’s the longest running fantasy and science fiction convention in New England and worth traveling to experience.  Maybe I’ll see you there!

     

    Did you attend Boskone55?  If so, what was a highlight moment for you?

     

  • Good News, Bad News, and Trouble in Writing Town

    Good News, Bad News, and Trouble in Writing Town

    I’ve got a thirty-minute break before my next parent-teacher conference, so I thought I’d use this time to do some writing. I know I won’t be able to get any meaningful creative writing done, sandwiched as this moment is between long and stressful blocks of trying to calm down nervous parents and stressed-out students. My stress levels are elevated today, too. Not a great place to be, mentally, when you want the ideas to flow. The doors of my imagination just can’t swing freely on their hinges at the moment. 

    Since I’m currently stress-blocked and don’t feel up to generating anything creative right now, I figured I’d use this time to sneak in a blog post and try to unpack a problem that has been dogging me of late.

    Creative Constipation

    Writer's BlockOver the past week, forward progress on my WIP has slowed to a snail’s pace. I need to figure out what’s going on. What has changed? What can I do to unblock myself?  

    You know how everyone always says stuff like, “You can’t edit a blank page,” or “The first draft is supposed to be terrible?” Of course, you do, if you’re a writer. It’s inescapable, especially during the month of NaNoWriMo. I firmly buy into those clichéd tidbits of advice. If I had more time (hahaha) I’d needlepoint it onto a cushion and then sit on that cushion as I wrote.

    However, something happened on the 15th that seems to have changed things and not for the better. We (being the folks in Lesley University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program) received our mentor pairings for next semester. Fourth semester students (like me) work on one thing and one thing only: our creative theses. Or, in layman’s terms, we’ll be trying to shine up a reasonable draft of a book. Up until last week, I was feeling pretty good about that. Looking forward to it, in fact.

    Good News, Bad News

    Then, we got our pairings. Good news: I got my first choice for a mentor. The esteemed Chris Lynch, author of Inexcusable, Little Blue Lies, and Angry Young Man, and others. I also got my first pick for my Thesis Reader: Jason Reynolds, author of Patina, When I Was the Greatest, and All American Boys among other books. To invoke Chandler Bing, “Could I be more excited?” Maybe, but it would be difficult.

    Chandler Bing Gif

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Anyway, I got that news and fist-pumped the sky, did a dance of joy, and then froze. Oh, sugar-honey-iced-tea. Chris Lynch and Jason Reynolds are going to see my story.  Turns out the good news is also the bad news.

    Grocery Bag FailureHere’s what that sudden, stark realization felt like. Imagine you’re at the grocery store, heading back to your car carrying two extremely heavy and overpacked bags of foodstuffs, and you’re feeling stoked because you hit some sweet sales and managed to stock up for the week and then some. You’re crossing a busy throughway in the parking lot when the bags let go. All at once, the bottoms rip wide open and vomit your stuff all over the pavement. Cans are rolling everywhere. The milk carton is ruptured.  A white puddle expands at your feet. Dented boxes, broken eggs, bruised apples racing away, and cars coming at you from both directions.  What you thought of just moments ago as an awesome bundle of tasty treats now looks like an embarrassing heap of trash. 

    My “book” now feels like those groceries lying broken and hopeless and ugly on the pavement, and Mr. Lynch and Mr. Reynolds are the drivers who have to stop and get out of their slick cars to help me to scrape all my crap up off the ground.  They know how to bag groceries.  This would never happen to them.  I’m a schmuck, and now they have to deal with my foolishness.

    Perception versus Reality

    I’m not saying that’s my actual situation. Maybe my “book” isn’t as big a mess as all that, but that’s how it feels right now.

    I’ve got this thing, this rough draft, and it’s terrible in all the ways that I usually tell myself a first draft is allowed to be. But…

    Two authors whom I respect (and, okay yes, idolize) are about to put eyes on it. All of a sudden it no longer feels okay for my rough draft to be messy. I want to turn my work-to-date over to Chris, have him read it, and then get an email from him expounding upon how wonderful it is and how excited he is to help me cut and polish this diamond of a story.

    I want that, but I don’t have a rough diamond to give him. I’ve got a pile of ruined groceries hastily scraped up off the blacktop, possibly destined for the garbage. And he’s going to judge me!

    He’s not going to judge me.

    The man is amazing. So is Jason, who will read my “finished” product at the end of this semester and either give it the thumbs up (I pass) or thumbs down (I still pass, but let it be known that I am a talentless hack). Every student who has worked with these two men has sung their praises.

    The point is, I no longer feel okay with my rough draft being terrible. In my desire to impress two incredible authors, I’d want it to be perfect, spotless, shiny. Glittering to the point of blinding in its utter fabulousness. Is that too much to ask?

    We’re Our Own Worst Critics

    Tom Hanks WriterYes, as it turns out. Perfection is too much to ask, and my self-imposed, unattainable new expectations have bogged down my writing process. My muse has curled up in the fetal position at my feet beneath my desk. She’s utterly useless under pressure, I guess. Meanwhile, I am getting hung up on every single sentence I try to write. Is this description strong enough? Are these verbs punchy enough? Am I rambling? Should I cut this? Do I need to elaborate here?  Why’s there so much dialogue in this scene?  What the H am I doing?

    That’s me, snail-crawling along, doubting EVERYTHING about my writing and my characters and my story.  Whereas I normally can pump out a solid 1,500 to 2,000 words a day, I’m now down to less than 500. 

    Which I guess would be okay if it weren’t for the fact that I’m supposed to turn in 13,000 words of new material on December 1st in preparation for my January residency. I’ve only got 6,200 words so far, and that has taken me almost two weeks to generate. And it’s all rough draft quality work.

    Sigh.

    This really should be an IWSG post, because I am feeling more insecure about my writing than I have probably ever felt before in my entire life. It’s cool. It’ll pass. I’ve doubted myself before this, and I always get over it…

    Eventually.

    Until then, I’ll continue to plug along and hope that, with the help of an incredibly talented (and patient–dear Freya, please let them be patient) mentor and reader, some of my groceries will turn out to be salvageable.  Because what else can to do?  It’s part of being an aspiring writer, right?  I either quit now, or I push through the doubt and continue to dribble the words onto the paper.  

    Okey-dokey.  Break time’s over.  Back to the day job.

    Has anyone else had nearly paralyzing moments of doubt brought on by the prospect of having a legitimately talented author/agent/editor reading your stuff?  Please, tell me I’m not the only one.

  • #IWSG: Creative Insecurities, Community, and Surprises!

    #IWSG: Creative Insecurities, Community, and Surprises!

    Link to the Insecure Writer's Support Group homepage

    Creative Insecurity:

    Creative people of all types tend to be insecure folks, I think. Creative folks are bold, daring, maybe a little crazy. They push the boundaries, lean into the unknown, risk failure. But because of that, they occasionally run afoul of moments of doubt and insecurity.

    Unfortunately, those are the moments that, from a psychological standpoint, really sting. Those nagging thoughts are what our brains remember, obsess over, amplify in orders of magnitude until we can’t see beyond them.

    That’s how it is for me at least. Most of the time, I’m good. Like, 80% of the time. 20% of the time I feel like a fraud. I’m wasting my time. What I’m trying to do is ridiculous and unattainable because I have no talent whatsoever and how could I have ever thought that I could succeed as a creative writer.  Chuck Wendig wrote a great post about this over on his Terrible Minds blog.  (Be warned, his language is fabulously profane).

    The life of a writer can easily become a life of solitude, one in which the only people you can talk to are the voices in your head, most of which are nasty jerks who thrive on negativity and despair. I’ve sort of given up reaching out to friends and family members for reassurances.  I’m lucky in that my friends and family members are supportive, but they also don’t really get it, so I never quite trust their words of encouragement, and my insecurities remain. 

    Building a Community of Supportive People Who Get It:

    To help me cope, I’ve sought out other writers who are down in the creative trenches, pushing their own boundaries and taking risks. They’ll understand. They’ll know. Their support and encouragement carry more weight and really do help to dispel those horrible moments of insecurity that sneak up on me here and there.

    For the past year and a half, I’ve been a member of the North Shore Writer’s Group in Massachusetts.  I can’t begin to tell you how great it has been for me as a writer and as a creative person in general to be able to gather in a room with a bunch of other writers twice a month to chat about life, our creative struggles, and then discuss our work.  

    Online writing groups are great, too.  I recently discovered The Insecure Writer’s Support Group. What a cool organization/site! Their mission is to recognize the dark moments of the writing process and the writer’s life and connect people to each other.  They help writers find and build a support network.  One of the many things they do over there is to host a monthly blog hop. Budding and established authors are all welcome to participate (I current fall into the former category). The group posts a monthly prompt, and we can use it to spark a blog post.

    IWSG Question of the Month: Have you ever surprised yourself with your writing?

    Yes, definitely. Frequently, in fact. On the spectrum of plotter/pantser (pantser is a term I don’t care for, by the way. I prefer to call myself a “discovery writer.” Not my term. Picked it up from fantasy author Brandon Sanderson in one of his co-hosted Writing Excuses podcasts. Fabulous podcast. You’ve got to check it out), I’m pretty far over toward the discovery writer end of things. I’ll sketch out a loose outline of where I want the story to go, but mostly I just start with a “what if” premise, conjure up some imaginary person to throw it at, and see what happens.

    A couple of weeks ago, I started writing a scene that came to me as I was drifting off to sleep one night. It had nothing to do with anything that had happened in the story or that I had visualized happening, but it was an intriguing “what if” situation.

    I had no expectations when I started writing that scene. For all I cared, I could finish it up and trash it if I decided it wasn’t something I liked. No harm, no foul. Everything I write is an opportunity to practice my skills, and Gods know I have a lot that I can practice. Pacing, description, POV and perspective, character development, world-building, dialogue, even basic sentence structure.

    So, I started writing. What the hay, kids. Let’s hop in the car and go for a drive. Why not? See where the open road takes us. We might stumble across something interesting.

    What I stumbled across was an unexpected plot twist that I’m super, and I mean SUPER excited about pursuing.

    When my explorations, my unsupervised road trip inevitably leads me and my characters down a dead-end street of ugliness, I will despair. My insecurities will breed like gremlins and grown in size until all I can see is how awful I am. But that’s okay because I’ve taken steps to find and connect with other creative writers. I have not one but several support groups who will help me defeat my doubts. The Insecure Writer’s Support Group being among them.

    So, how about you? Do you have a support group of like-minded folks who help you keep pushing your boundaries, keep taking risks? And when you do stick your creative neck out, do you ever surprise yourself? I’d love to hear about it.